Self-adjusting and repositioning card gate



Aug. 25, 1970 A. w. OATEN 3,525,518

SELF-ADJUSTING AND REPOSITIONING CARD GATE Filed Sept. 9. 1968 INVENTOR3e ALBERT w. OATEN United States Patent 3,525,518- SELF-ADJUSTING ANDREPOSITIONING CARD GATE Albert W. Oaten, Rochester, Minn., assignor toInternational Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.,

a corporation of New York Filed Sept. 9, 1968, Ser. No. 758,268 Int. Cl.B65h 3/50 U.S. Cl. 271-41 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A cardfeeding mechanism for a vertical stack of cards consists of fixed upperand lower throat knives defining a throat gap of fixed dimensionsallowing a single bottom card to be fed by an oscillating picker. Thegap face of the upper throat knife is tapered in the direction of cardfeed and a bowed creep spring is carried by the upper throat knife witha transverse spring portion of larger diameter than the throat gapself-biased against the direction of card feed and in contact with thetapered face for automatically controlling single card feed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This inventionrelates to card or sheet feeding mechanisms and more particularly to avertical card stack feeder wherein cards are fed singly, from either thetop or the bottom of the stack, in a selective and closely controlledmanner.

Description of the prior art Prior art card feeding mechanismnecessarily employ fixed or movable members defining a throat knife gap'which is normally, slightly in excess of the thickness of a single cardto be fed with cyclically operated picking means acting to feedindividual cards from the bottom or top of the stack, through the throatknife gap. Attempts have been made to facilitate high speed, serial feedof the cards by maintaining alignment between the throat gap and cardsbeing fed regardless of card or sheet warpage. There have also beenattempts to adjustably support the upper or lower throat knife foradjustment prior to card feed to allow the card feed mechanism to adaptitself to cards of varying thickness, and to additionally insure thecorrect feeding of a single card regardless of card warpage. Further,there have been devices placed in the path of the cards being fed,downstream of the throat gap to prevent the inadvertent feeding ofmultiple cards should more than one card pass through the fixed oradjustable throat gap. Such devices have been rather SUMMARY OF THEINVENTION This invention is directed to a card feeding mechanism of thetype in which a stack of cards to be fed are supported for either bottomor top feeding by a cyclically operated, rotary or oscillating pickermechanism which feeds cards serially from either the top or bottom ofthe stack through spaced, relatively fixed upper and lower throat knivesdefining a throat gap of constant dimensions and positioned in the pathof card feed. One of the throat knives has its throat gap face taperedinwardly in the direction of card feed and a creep spring is carried bythe mechanism having a portion extending across the gap in contact withthe tapered face and of a diameter slightly larger than the throat gapitself. Means are provided for biasing the creep spring portion in theopposite 3,525,518 Patented Aug. 25, 1970 direction to that of card feedand into contact with the tapered face.

Preferably, the creep spring is unitary, is rectangular in configurationand is bowed to provide a bias force in opposition to the direction ofcard feed. Further, a first transverse spring portion is carried withinthe throat gap in contact with the tapered face while a secondtransverse portion is positioned within a transverse slot carried by thethroat knife parallel to, and spaced from the tapered face, with thesecond transverse spring portion consisting of bent and crossed terminalends "to provide the biasing force tending to force the first transverseportion into contact with the tapered face.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partial, schematic, sideelevational view of a bottom stack card feeding mechanism incorporatingthe self-adjusting and repositioning card gate of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of a portion of the apparatus shownin FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, side elevational view of a portion of theapparatus shown in FIG. 1 with the card gate positioned prior toselective card feed.

FIG. 4 is an identical view to that of FIG. 3 after initiation of cardfeed.

FIG. 5 is a side elevational View identical to that of FIG. 3, duringcard feeding, with the card gate being moved to an unobstructingposition.

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view, identical to that of FIG. 3 with thetrailing edge of the card passing beneath the card gate.

FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of the single element creep springforming a principal component of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view of the creep spring shown in FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, inconventional fashion a stack of cards or sheets 10 are supported bymeans (not shown) for serial feeding, in a selective manner, from leftto right in the direction of arrow 12 by intermittent operation of thepivotable, oscillating picker mechanism 14. The picker mechanism 14 isin position to feed the lower-most card 10 through a card feed throatgap of fixed dimension T as defined by upper throat knife or member 16and lower throat knife or card bed member 18. Both members 16 and 18 arefixed, in this case the upper throat knife 16 is fixed to verticalsupport member or plate 20. The lower throat knife member or card bed 18is provided with a tapered contact surface 22 which first receives theleading edge of the lower-most card 10 and supports the same prior tofeeding by the oscillating picker member 14, under cyclic operation.

Referring to FIG. 2, a pair of pressure shoes 24 are shown on eitherside of the fixed, upper throat knife 16 to facilitate card feedoperation in which a single card only is fed through the throat gap. Thethroat gap is defined by the upper edge 26 of the card bed or lowerthroat knife 18 and the front edge 28 of the upper throat knife 16. Thecard feed mechanism is so far defined, is conventional, and in operationa clockwise oscillation of picker mechanism 14, as shown by arrow 30,results in card movement from left to right through the throat gap withthe single lowermost card 10' being fed therethrough since its thicknessis somewhat less than the dimension T of the throat gap.

The present invention is directed to a repositioning, self-adjustingcard gate, the primary element of which comprises a formed creep spring32. Creep spring 32 is formed of a resilient metal wire having a springdiameter D which is in excess of the throat gap dimension T. The creepspring 32 may be formed of steel spring stock of a suitable diameter.Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, it is noted that the formed creep spring isgenerally rectangular in configuration when viewed from front or rear invertical elevation, and is provided with a first and lower transverseportion 34, upper or second transverse portion identified generally at36 and paired side portions 38 connecting the same. The side portions 38are bowed, FIG. 8, and terminal ends are bent at 42 and crossed to formpaired transverse legs 40, rounded to form contact edges 44.

In this respect, by reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, it is noted that theupper, fixed throat knife 16 is provided with a transverse slot 46within which is positioned, the upper transverse portion 36 of the creepspring 32. The opposed side portions 38 of the creep spring lie alongthe sides 48 of the throat knife with the first or lower transverseportion 34 self-biased into contact with throat gap face '50 of theupper throat knife 16. It is important to note that the throat gap face50 of the upper throat knife tapers inwardly, in the direction of cardfeed at an angle a and that further, regardless of the longitudinalposition of the first or lower transverse portion 34 of the creep springwithin the throat gap, it is always in contact with this tapered face.This is partially achieved by bowing the side portions 38 in which case,and is indicated in FIG 3, the transverse portion 34 of the creepspring, that is that portion within the and/ or adjacent the throat gapis provided with a biasing force having a component indicated by arrow Ain the plane of card feed and in a direction opposite thereto. A secondforce component (arrow B) at right angles to that of component Aprovides a lift tending to maintain the transverse portion 34 of thecreep spring in contact with the throat gap face 50. The resultant ofthese two bias forces is indicated by arrow R. This resultant force, inthe absence of a card being fed maintains the transverse portion of thecreep spring in the position shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. Thus, the gateposition, that is the position of the transverse portion 34 of the creepspring is controlled by the separation T of the throat gap, the diameterD of the transverse portion 34 of the spring and the throat knife anglea. which is defined by the taper of the throat gap face 50. Preloads Aand B are selected in dimension to provide a resultant force necessaryto arrest card creep of card 10 at spring face 52. When a force F isapplied to the bottom-most part of the stack 10, such as by oscillationof picker 14, the force F is in excess to the horizontal component A ofthe preload and movement of card 10 from left to right automaticallyoccurs. The sequence of this movement is indicated by FIGS. 4, and 6.

With a relatively small throat knife angle or, the transverse spring 34must move rearwardly in the direction of card feed .015" in a typicalexample to allow the necessary .007" lift of this gate under spring loadB, to allow the card to be fed without further horizontal restraint.Reference to FIG. 4 shows that, with this amount of card feed, creepspring section 34 has been lifted as it slides rearwardly upon thetapered face 50. Of course, there is a continued spring bias force ofconstant magnitude being exerted against the transverse spring section34 tending to return it to its initial position of FIG. 3. Once theleading edge 54 of the card passes beyond the transverse section 34 ofthe spring, the card 10" continues to move with little restraint. As thetrailing edge 56 of the card clears the transverse spring section 34,FIG. 6, the spring preload immediately returns the transverse section 34of the spring to its initial position with the card gate then blockingthe next card 10" of the stack and preventing the same from creepingforward into the throat gap T. The resiliency of the creep spring 32allows both self adjusting and repositioning of the spring prior tosubsequent feed of the next card or sheet.

Since the return movement of the spring transverse section 34 iscontrolled by the preload forces A, B and the throat knife angle a,repositioning of the spring transverse portion 34 at the end of cardtravel 10 is automatic. After release of the transverse section 34 ofthe spring by the passage of trailing edge 56 of card 10, the springreturns to the position shown in FIG. 3 and an identical sequence occurswith respect to the next card 10" upon initiation of clockwiseoscillation of the card picker 14. The elements of the card feedmechanism, with the exception of the wire creep spring 32, may be formedof metal, plastic, or wood as desired. The advantages of the card gateare readily apparent in the simplicity, low cost and self-adjustingfeatures of the present invention. Rather than having the upper throatknife 16 fixed, for instance, the same could be adjusted vertically withrespect to the fixed vertical support 20 and in such case, a substitutecreep spring could be provided for spring 32, and would be formed of awire having a larger or smaller diameter. It is only necessary that thediameter of the lower or first transverse portion 34 of the wire be inexcess to the throat gap dimension T for correct operation of theself-adjusting card gate.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may bemade therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a card feeding mechanism including; means for supporting a stackof cards or the like, spaced, relatively fixed upper and lower throatknife members defining a throat gap of constant dimensions andpositioned adjacent one lateral edge of the stack, and a pickermechanism for selectively feeding cards in serial fashion from the stackthrough said throat gap, the improvement wherein:

(a) the gap face of one of said throat knife members tapers inwardly inthe direction of card feed and said mechanism further includes:

(13) a creep spring carried by said mechanism having a portion extendingacross said gap, in contact with said tapered face, of a diameter largerthan said gap, and (c) means for biasing said transverse creep springportion in opposite direction to that of card feed and in contact withsaid tapered face.

2. The card feeding mechanism as claimed in claim 1 further including; atransverse slot formed in said throat knife member carrying said taperedgap face, said transverse slot being parallel to the plane of saidtapered face and spaced therefrom, said creep spring being rectangularin configuration with one transverse portion carried within said throatgap in contact With the tapered face, a second transverse portionpositioned within said transverse slot, and bowed side portions couplingsaid creep spring transverse portions to provide a first biasing forceacting on said first transverse portion in a direction opposite to thatof card feed, and a second biasing force to maintain the firsttransverse creep spring portion in contact with said tapered face.

3. The card feeding mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein said secondtransverse creep spring portion comprises a pair of bent and crossedcreep spring terminal ends to facilitate provision of said secondbiasing force.

4. In a card feeding mechanism including means for vertically supportinga stack of cards, upper and lower throat knife members defining a fixedthroat gap generally equal to the thickness of a single card, and pickermeans for cyclically feeding the bottom card of said stack through thealigned throat gap, the improvement wherein:

(a) the gap face of the upper throat knife member is tapered inwardly inthe direction of card feed, and said mechanism further includes:

(b) a creep spring carried by said upper throat knife member, said creepspring having a gate portion extending transversely across said throatgap, of a diameter in excess of the gap dimension and in contact withsaid tapered face, and means carried by said creep spring for biasingsaid gate portion in a direction opposite to that of card feed andagainst said tapered face.

5. The card feeding mechanism as claimed in claim 4, further comprising;a transverse slot carried by said upper throat knife member parallel toand spaced from said tapered face, and wherein said means carried bysaid creep spring for biasing said gate portion against said taperedface, is carried by said transverse slot.

6. The card feeding mechanism as claimed in claim 4 further comprising;a transverse slot carried by said upper throat knife, parallel to andspaced from said tapered face, and wherein; said creep spring isunitary, rectangular in configuration, and includes a first transverseportion carried within the tapered throat gap, in contact with taperedface of said upper throat knife member, a second transverse portionpositioned within said throat knife transverse slot and configured toproduce a biasing force tending to maintain said first transverse creepspring portion against said tapered face, said creep spring furtherincluding at least one side portion which is bowed to bias said firstcreep spring transverse portion in a direction opposite to that of thecard feed.

7. The card feeding mechanism as claimed in claim 6 wherein said uppertransverse spring portion comprises paired terminal ends of said creepspring which are bent inwardly toward each other, and are crossedcentrally.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,292,619 1/1919 Lorenz 221267 X1,433,873 10/1922 Cogswell 271-44 1,801,165 4/1931 Macke 221267 X2,804,301 8/1957 Beman 271-41 3,414,126 12/1968 Vulcano 221-267 X GERALDM. FORLENZA, Primary Examiner R. J. SPAR, Assistant Examiner US. Cl.X.R. 221-267; 27161

